Join the Discussion: Government as a Platform!

The phrase 'government as a platform’, or GaaP, minted by Tim O' Reilly in 2009, has become shorthand for the use of open standards and agile delivery practices to accelerate access to digitized Government services. However, although GaaP was broadly debated in the US, the term has received less attention here in the UK. Worse, it is often mistakenly dismissed as a narrow technology-specific initiative. Yet GaaP is far more than a geek’s trendy acronym: it invites serious engagement between the world of government and the emerging world of platforms.

As political parties continue to research, develop and refine their policies for the future of our country, urgent work is needed in several areas: on understanding what citizens and businesses need from public services; on the definition of what a platform-based business model for UK public services actually looks like in order to meet those needs; vigorous and open debate about its limitations and boundaries; and the development of – we hope – a degree of cross-party consensus and a collective mandate for its implementation.

We are an apolitical group interested in bringing GaaP to everyone's attention in the UK to ensure that the enormous implications of the concept are debated properly, and that its opportunities do not go unmissed.